"I don't think anybody who dislikes our show is any less intelligent or any less worthwhile than anyone who does," he said. "I'm proud of it. I obviously have a dog in this fight, so it's hard for me to be objective, but I appreciate honest criticism."

However, Sadoski argued that some TV critics indulge in "takedown pieces" and "trying to prove how smart and clever [they] can be with the amount of awful things [they] can say about a person".

"What it comes down to is this - we as a group... we're all nerds," he suggested. "Like, really big nerds. We're used to having the cool kids kick the s**t out of us.

"Frankly, I'm actually okay with it. I know HBO is proud of the size of our audience because we've been renewed. People who want to hate on us are going to hate on us. At least they watched."